Now in its second week of release, the 3-D outer space thriller outpaced the debut of "Captain Phillips" with an estimated $12.7 million earned on Friday. "Captain Phillips," starring Tom Hanks and directed by Paul Greengrass, opened with $8.5 million in sales, according to estimates.

According to prerelease audience surveys, "Gravity" could stand to earn $40 million in its second weekend, which will push the film past the $100-million mark in U.S. and Canada. Targeting an adult audience, "Captain Phillips" was expected to open this weekend with $20 million.

Based on the true story of a U.S. cargo ship captain who was kidnapped by Somali pirates in 2009, "Captain Phillips" received strong critical notice upon its release with a 95% positive score on the film review aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes. The only film to be ranked higher this season is "Gravity," which earned a 97% positive rating.

Also opening this weekend, Robert Rodriguez's sequel "Machete Kills" opened off the pace with an estimated $1.4 million in ticket sales on Friday. The numbers thus far place the action film starring Danny Trejo behind the earnings of the animated sequel "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2," which took in an estimated $3.5 million on Friday, but ahead of "Runner Runner." The film starring Ben Affleck and Justin Timberlake is tracking for fifth place on the weekend after $1.1 million in sales on Friday.

Even in a summer that's focused on creativity, with exceptional documentaries like "Amy" on Amy Winehouse and "What Happened, Miss Simone?" on Nina Simone, "Listen to Me Marlon" stands out. Autobiographical in nature, unconventional in structure, this is the story of Marlon Brando not as the world...

ABC News was last in the ratings in the summer of 1968, behind NBC's team of Chet Huntley and David Brinkley and Walter Cronkite on CBS. It was desperate to gain an edge on the more established networks' news teams.